Young Fast reports losses, expects improved revenue

EXPECTATIONS:The company’s chairman said the second quarter is generally a weak quarter, but that said operation are expected to improve gradually during the third quarter

By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter

Young Fast Optical Co (洋華光電), a touch-panel supplier for Microsoft Corp and HTC Corp (宏達電), yesterday posted its first quarterly loss in a year due to sagging demand for tablets, but it said it expected revenue to improve this quarter on seasonal demand for handsets.

During the quarter ended on June 30, Young Fast swung into loss of NT$202 million (US$6.73 million), from net profit of NT$177 million in the first quarter. On an annual basis, the figure represented an improvement from a net loss of NT$390 million.

“The second quarter is a weak quarter. The company’s operation will improve gradually during the third quarter in line with the industry’s seasonal trend,” Young Fast chairman Lin Teh-jeng (林德錚) told investors.

Lin said Young Fast’s operations had bottomed out last month in terms of revenue and the company expected revenue to rise in the current quarter, compared with NT$1.96 billion last quarter.

Revenue grew 29 percent to NT$722 million last month from June’s NT$559 million, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange last week.

Handset touch panels represented 75 percent of Young Fast’s revenue last quarter and the share was likely to rise this quarter, Lin said.

However, the overall improvement this quarter would not be as significant when customers have revised downward their forecast for this year.

“We are being affected by weaker-than-expected market demand,” Lin said.

Young Fast’s sales growth forecast went against the sequential decline of between 15 percent and 20 percent estimated by bigger rival TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), which cited sagging demand for tablets and high-end smartphones.

“There is an oversupply of one-glass-solution (OGS) touch panels for PCs as demand fell short of expectations,” Lin said.